Articles by Daniel Vaughn
Barbecue Italian Style
How two Sicilian brothers begat a variant of smoked meat found only in Waco.
Mapping Texas Barbecue History
When it comes to Texas barbecue’s roots, Central Texas meat markets get all the glory. The German and Czech immigrants who built the fires at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Southside Market in Elgin, and Prause Meat Market in La Grange were indeed barbecue pioneers, but their stories are often elevated because those…
BBQ News: 01/20 – 01/26
– “I think people that have secrets in cooking, I really think they’re a**holes.” – Pat Martin: – The KCBS is now accepting nominations for their BBQ Hall of Fame through March 1st. – Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland is now open for dinner, and they’re planning…
Weighing Your Options
Update: Mark Loeffler, communications director for the Texas Department of Agriculture*, provided more details on their enforcement effort. Operation Maverick was launched in June 2015 to target any business buying or selling goods by weight. He didn’t have current numbers, but by March 2016, they had inspected 1,400 barbecue joints.
Pinkerton’s Barbecue
"How I cook here is exactly how I cook in my backyard," Pinkerton said--maybe because it is his backyard.
Gobble, Gobble
Rose Diamond once ruled the world of smoked turkey. In 1938, customers in New York, Miami, and Hollywood enjoyed her smoked turkeys shipped out from her Fort Worth home. According to The Claude News, they brined for at least ten days before being smoked in a brick pit in Diamond’s…
Juicy Pig Barbecue
From side-lovers to vegetarians, there's something for everyone at this adventurous joint.
Knives Out
There are certain dishes that every good Texan knows and loves. But do you really know how to grill a flawless ribeye? Season that cast-iron skillet in your cupboard? Make sure your dough rises? We asked experts around the state to share some how-tos and a few recipes that will sharpen your culinary cred beyond question.
Hammond’s BBQ and Roadrunner Smokehouse
In Glen Rose, the biggest competitor to Hammond’s BBQ is… the Hammond family.
Smoked in Texas: BBQ Tacos at BBQ on the Brazos
Combining barbecue and tacos is a damn-near perfect culinary Texas creation. In fact, it is the barbecue tacos at Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ in Austin that has made this one of my favorite joints in the state. I’ve often wished that more tortillas were stuffed with smoked meat, so I was happy to find another…
The Pit Room
Brisket, tacos, potato chips, sausage, cherry pie--this place does it all, and does it well.
Back Country Bar-B-Q
Four decades of classic barbecue, still going strong thanks to a new owner.
Snow’s Queen
On Saturdays Tootsie Tomanetz cooks barbecue the old-fashioned way for legions of loyal fans. That doesn’t mean she’ll ever give up her day job.
Sonny Bryan’s 24/7
The headlights from a Chrysler 300 beamed through the window and into the historic dining room of Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas. It was after midnight, and the driver was waiting for his seemingly inebriated (or maybe balance-impaired) passenger to get back with a couple chopped brisket sandwiches. I had just ordered ribs…
Dylan’s Barbeque Saloon
Barbecue rookies have built a promising stop off of Northwest Highway in Dallas.
Big Mac, Bigger Mac, Baby Mac
Texans will decide if McDonald's should add new sizes of its classic menu item.
BBQ News: 04/15 – 04/21
– “If there was a state meat, surely it would be brisket.”: – The Dallas Observer wades into the barbecue sauce or no sauce debate. – Conde Nast Traveler has chosen their list of the fifteen best barbecue cities in the country. – Luke…
Back Home BBQ
Just a few months after opening in early 2015, Dallas’s Back Home BBQ pulled a barbecue mulligan: They shut it down. The already renovated Chinese restaurant got re-renovated. A new patio and sign were installed, and the menu was overhauled. When it reopened last November, pitmaster Carl Anderson began cooking with…
Tejas Chocolate Craftory
Scott Moore wanted to make tequila, but you can only call it “tequila” if it’s made in Mexico, and there is already plenty of competition on the store shelves. So he settled for chocolate. The availability of good chocolate was a different story in 2011 when Moore and his partner, Michelle Holland,…
Smoked Fried Turkey
I’m of the opinion that most foods can be improved when they’re smoked, and one of my favorite dishes that proves this proclaimed axiom is smoked turkey. We’ve got plenty of great options in Texas, all of which likely beat the oven-roasted turkey that your family overcooked at Thanksgiving. But when it…
Make a Christmas Ham
Yes, really. Make a ham. From scratch. Don’t just reheat one from the grocery store like you did for Easter. You still have the time to get it on if you start now. After a seven- or eight-day brine, you can have one you can call your own on your…
The Best Turkey in Texas
Smoked turkey is now so common that nearly every grocery store deli case in the country carries at least one variety (and more often, many more than one). We now take this protein option for granted, but smoked turkey doesn’t have the same long history as beef and pork barbecue do in this…
Cracking the Cracklin’ Code
Chicharrón, pork rinds, gratons, cracklins—call them what you like, but fried hog fat with the skin on is a wonderful thing. I recently attended a Louisiana boucherie (what is essentially a communal gathering where a whole hog is butchered and broken down; read more about it here), and I was…
